And there were also Crowley and Aziraphale.
They strolled side by side across the grass.
“Same here,” said Aziraphale. “The shop's all there. Not so much as a soot mark.”
“I mean, you can't just make an old Bentley,” said Crowley. “You can't get the patina. But there it was, large as life. Right there in the street. You can't tell the difference.”
“Well, 1 can tell the difference,” said Aziraphale. “I'm sure I didn't stock books with titles like Biggles Goes To Mars and Jack Cade, Frontier Hero and 101 Things A Boy Can Do and Blood Dogs of the Skull Sea.”
“Gosh, I'm sorry,” said Crowley, who knew how much the angel had treasured his book collection.
“Don't be,” said Aziraphale happily. “They're all mint first editions and I looked them up in Skindle's Price Guide. I think the phrase you use is whop.. eee. ”
“I thought he was putting the world back just as it was,” said Crowley.
“Yes,” said Aziraphale. “More or less. As best he can. But he's got a sense of humor, too.”
Crowley gave him a sideways look.
“Your people been in touch?” he said.
“No. Yours?”
“No.”
“I think they're pretending it didn't happen.”
“Mine too, I suppose. That's bureaucracy for you.”
“And I think mine are waiting to see what happens next,” said Aziraphale.
Crowley nodded. “A breathing space,” he said. “A chance to morally re.. arm. Get the defenses up. Ready for the big one.”
They stood by the pond, watching the ducks scrabble for the bread.
“Sorry?” said Aziraphale. “I thought that was the big one.”
“I'm not sure,” said Crowley. “Think about it. For my money, the really big one will be all of Us against all of Them.”
“What? You mean Heaven and Hell against humanity?”
Crowley shrugged. “Of course, if he did change everything, then maybe he changed himself, too. Got rid of his powers, perhaps. Decided to stay human.”
“Oh, I do hope so,” said Aziraphale. “Anyway, I'm sure the alter native wouldn't be allowed. Er. Would it?”
“I don't know. You can never be certain about what's really intended. Plans within plans.”
“Sorry” said Aziraphale.
“Well,” said Crowley, who'd been thinking about this until his head ached, “haven't you ever wondered about it all? You know.. your people and my people. Heaven and Hell, good and evil, all that sort of thing? I mean, why?”
“As I recall,” said the angel, stiffly, “there was the rebellion and.. ”
“Ah, yes. And why did it happen, eh? I mean, it didn't have to, did it?” said Crowley, a manic look in his eye. “Anyone who could build a universe in six days isn't going to let a little thing like that happen. Unless they want it to, of course.”
“Oh, come on. Be sensible,” said Aziraphale, doubtfully.
“That's not good advice,” said Crowley. “That's not good advice at all. If you sit down and think about it sensibly,you come up with some very funny ideas. Like: why make people inquisitive, and then put some forbidden fruit where they can see it with a big neon finger flashing on and off saying 'THIS IS IT!'?”
“I don't remember any neon.”
“Metaphorically, I mean. I mean, why do that if you really don't want them to eat it, eh? I mean, maybe you just want to see how it all turns out. Maybe it's all part of a great big ineffable plan. All of it. You, me, him, everything. Some great big test to see if what you've built all works properly, eh? You start thinking: it can't be a great cosmic game of chess, it has to be just very complicated Solitaire. And don't bother to answer. If we could understand, we wouldn't be us. Because it's all.. all.. ”
INEFFABLE, said the figure feeding the ducks.
“Yeah. Right. Thanks.”
They watched the tall stranger carefully dispose of the empty bag in a litter bin, and stalk away across the grass. Then Crowley shook his head.
“What was I saying?” he said.
“Don't know,” said Aziraphale. “Nothing very important, I think.”
Crowley nodded gloomily. “Let me tempt you to some lunch,” he hissed.
They went to the Ritz again, where a table was mysteriously vacant. And perhaps the recent exertions had had some fallout in the nature of reality because, while they were eating, for the first time ever, a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.
No one heard it over the noise of the traffic, but it was there, right enough.
* * *
It was one o'clock on Sunday.
For the last decade Sunday lunch in Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell's world had followed an invariable routine. He would sit at the rickety, cigarette.. burned table in his room, thumbing through an elderly copy of one of the Witchfinder Army library's [Witchfinder Corporal Carpet, librarian, I1 pence per annum bonus.] books on magic and Demonology.. the Necrotelecomnicon or the Liber Fulvarum Paginarum, or his old favorite, the Malleus Malleficarum. [“A relentlefs blockbufter of a boke; heartily recommended”.. Pope Innocent VIII.]
Then there would be a knock on the door, and Madame Tracy would call out, “Lunch, Mr. Shadwell,” and Shadwell would mutter, “Shameless hussy,” and wait sixty seconds, to allow the shameless hussy time to get back into her room; then he'd open the door, and pick up the plate of liver, which was usually carefully covered by another plate to keep it warm. And he'd take it in, and he'd eat it, taking moderate care not to spill any gravy on the pages he was reading.
[To the right collector, the Witchfinder Army's library would have been worth millions. The right collector would have to have been very rich, and not have minded gravy stains, cigarette burns, marginal notations, or the late Witchfinder Lance Corporal Wotling's passion for drawing mustaches and spectacles on all woodcut illustrations of witches and demons.]
That was what always happened.
Except on that Sunday, it didn't.
For a start, he wasn't reading. He was just sitting.
And when the knock came on the door he got up immediately, and opened it. He needn't have hurried.
There was no plate. There was just Madame Tracy, wearing a cameo brooch, and an unfamiliar shade of lipstick. She was also standing in the center of a perfume zone.
“Aye, Jezebel?”
Madame Tracy's voice was bright and fast and brittle with uncertainty. “Hullo, Mister S, I was just thinking, after all we've been through in the last two days, seems silly for me to leave a plate out for you, so I've set a place for you. Come on ...”